Athletics: Former Leicester City star Muzzy Izzet making giant strides as marathon runner

Leicester City legend Muzzy Izzet says he now has a taste for the marathon after an excellent debut at the London event last weekend.

The former City midfielder clocked a time of 3hr 22min 36sec for Sunday's race.

That was a considerable achievement on his first attempt at the 26-mile, 385-yard distance.

After initially feeling "shot to bits" by the experience, Izzet has already started talking about improving on his time next year.

"It is something I can tick off in the box as having done and it was a fantastic experience," said Izzet, one of City's most popular players during the past decade.

"I think I was 12 minutes off the time needed for an elite start so that is really encouraging. I was pleased with the time although I'd like to get to something like 3.08 or 3.09 if I do it again."

Izzet had to balance his training regime with the serious knee injury which forced him to quit the game in June 2006.

He said: "I've probably not done as much training as I thought I needed and I had a couple of weeks when I didn't do anything, so that wasn't ideal. But I was quite pleased with things. The last five or six miles were probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

"I had my wife and children supporting me. I really had to dig in and I felt shot to bits afterwards but it was such a great thing to do."

Izzet, who made more than 300 appearances for City, hopes to raise in excess of £2,500 for his chosen charity, Wishes4Kids.

He was inspired to raise funds for the charity after meeting Louise Moon, 13, from Loughborough.

Louise was suffering from cancer and Izzet visited her almost every week for five months until she sadly passed away in August 2007.

"I want to thank everyone who has supported me and they can continue to do so," added Izzet.